Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Asanas

Marichyasana

Also Known As Ray of Light Pose · Maricyasana
Twist Asanas

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Marichyasana is a family of seated spinal twist postures named for the sage Marichi, one of the mind-born sons of Brahma, combining a bound forward fold of one leg with a twist and bind of the arms around the other. It is not one of the Gheranda Samhita's closed list of thirty two asanas; its attestation belongs to the wider hatha yoga asana tradition and to its later systematization rather than to that specific classical text. Its several numbered variations progress in difficulty, and like Matsyendrasana and Bharadvajasana it belongs to the core repertoire of seated twists attributed to named sages in the yoga tradition.

Facts
Attestation
Meaning in the Attesting SourceSourced to the subject's own account
Named for the sage Marichi, one of the mind-born sons of Brahma and traditionally counted among the seven great seers, the saptarishi. 1
Position Profile
Key TextSourced to the subject's own account
Gheranda Samhita, lesson 2. Not in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika's fifteen. 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Brahma, Deities

This source names Brahma directly: "Marichi, one of the mind-born sons of Brahma, combining a bound forward fold of one leg with a twist and bind of the arms around the other."

Source Gheranda SamhitaGheranda (the text's own attribution)

Related To

Bharadvajasana, Asanas

Used in Practice

Yoga, Disciplines
Sources
1. Gheranda Samhita
Gheranda (the text's own attribution), Panini Office, 1914on MarichyasanaView the Source
A Sanskrit-English Dictionary
Monier Monier-Williams, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1899View the Source
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